from home. With such social reality, I will try to relate our - PDF document

HOW THE UNIONS COPE WITH THE ALL ODDS IN NEPAL? Good morning Comrades; Good morning every body! This morning some of the comrades asked me where exactly Nepal locates? Before answering you, let me begin with a question, how do you recognise Nepal? What will be your answer? Perhaps some of you may say it is a country of Gurkhas; which often defamed as mercenary soldiers! Perhaps some argued- it is country of Buddha; and may be some of you counter-argued as saying No-No; it’s a fertile land for Rebellion recalling decade long deadly Maoist insurgency! I have a simple say- it's a Shangri-La ! My country, my pride is diversity in nature- creature and our human life! Politically, Nepal is at an eve of great transformation. We Nepalis are in a process of demystifying the fact why we have much inequality! Why Nepal is one of the most unequal societies in Asia?! Further, we are in a process of deconstructing our old society. From the very first meeting of 601 member most inclusive Constituent Assembly declared an end of 240 year old ruling Shah dynasty, which ultimately abolished over 1200 years old tradition of Monarchy and established First Republic of 21 st century in the world. People, with high aspiration, are collectively in a process to set up a federal democratic republic replacing existing central-petal state structure. We are in due process to managing political transition that is lingering-on since 2006 April Uprising. How is Nepali Society then? Many of us perhaps have quick answer that it is feudal or least developed economy! I would say it is a post-peasant society . No way is Nepal a FEUDAL society; the Capitalism has become here an organising principle of the political economy. However, it has not transformed into an industrial society. The evolutionary trajectory that had been postulated on the basis of change processes in Europe in the 19th and early 20th century has not materialised. The huge mass, driven out from agriculture in Nepal, has not become an industrial workforce. Neither have they been able to qualify themselves for steady employment in one of the other sectors of the economy. The class structure is a 1 Bishu Rimal Presentation at International seminar of 3F Denmark Smalandshavet, Sept 15, 2010

mixture of both old and new. Some of the features of the traditional classes are still in place but the visible opposite class is the Capitalist & the Working classes, which are also internally segmented. Nepal is a small country; however, it has a total Population of 26.43 millions. As of 2007 projection Female number is 13.19 millions and the Male is 13.24 millions. Nepal's current GDP growth rate is 3.53%; Per capita income is US$ 562. The Literacy rate above 5 years is 63%; where as literacy rate of persons above 15 years is 55.6%. The diversity is the significant parts of our population. Nepal has 4 human races, with 101 plus caste & ethnic groups; who speak 92 plus languages & dialogues and they practice 7 religions, and enjoying innumerable cultures & tradition. Some major Caste and Ethnic groups ( above 1% of the population ) Chhetri 15.80% Bahun 12.74% Magar 7.14% Tharu 6.75% Tamang 5.64% Newar 5.48% Muslim 4.28% Kaami 3.94% Yadav 3.94% Rai 2.79% Gurung 2.39% Damai 1.72% Limbu 1.58% Thakuri 1.47% Sarki 1.40% Teli 1.43% Chamar 1.19% Koiri 1.11% Nepali's life style has its own feature . Considering recent statistic of Nepal Labour force Survey; about 89.2 % households have their own house whereas 9.2 % live in rented room. Majority (68.%) of the households used firewood as fuel for cooking; whereas 12.3 % households used LP gas. Electricity is the main energy source for lighting only for half (56.1 %) of the households; around one-third households (33%) still use kerosene/oil/gas as the main fuel for lighting. About 45% of households used piped water whereas 39.10% of household use hand- pump/boring water. Only 25.40% of households have a modern flushing toilet where as 23.40% have relied on an ordinary toilet. 57.90% households has radio while 33.20% has a television set; around 28.30% has a mobile phone, 9.80% has a fixed line telephone and only 3.10% households has a computer. 78.4 % of all households in the country have agriculture land. Of the 43.8% households, at least one left home for job out of their native place, whereas 29.1% of all households, at least one left home to join labour market in abroad In an average a family earns remittance annually 80 thousands from aboard and 29 thousands from home. With such social reality, I will try to relate our efforts to address today's issues- the Social Dumping ! This morning we learn by opening remarks by Steen and Bjarne that the social dumping is a term with a negative connotation that is used to describe a temporary or transitory movement of workers; whereby employers use workers from one country or area in another country or area where the cost of 2 Bishu Rimal Presentation at International seminar of 3F Denmark Smalandshavet, Sept 15, 2010

labour is usually more expensive, in order to saving money and potentially increasing profit. We saw how Danish company is exploiting Polish workers at a picket line of Bronderscev ; the pay Danish workers usually are getting per hour not less than Danish Kr 160- the striking Polish workers are just getting Kr 50 only! As such, the precarious jobs and under pay workers of every country against decent employment and huge profit engulfed by employers created from the labour of 'poor' workers are the living example. I will not go in detail "what is and what is not" the social dumping. We all know that- o All precarious jobs are base for social dumping, o Poverty wage leads to the destiny of social dumping; o Labour migration to low pay (in relative term), and company dislocation is cause of social dumping; o Unfair labour practice can be a push-factor for social dumping. Let us peep inside Nepal again, how is her labour force! Total Labour force in Nepal is 11779 thousands (women 53%) with an employment to population ratio of 81.7%. People engage in Agriculture 73.9%; where as in non-agriculture 26.1%. In the light of production process, the labour sector is divided in terms of 'organised and unorganised', 'formal and informal' and 'intra-state and inter-state". In terms of nature, labour is basically divided as 'regular' such as employment in long-term contract and 'irregular ' such as casual, outsourced, home based, time-rated & piece-rated. A sizeable numbers of self- employed are in world of work in Nepal. There is dangerous mismatch between supply-side & demand-side of labour, which is creating a situation of "Scarcity amidst plenty" of working people. Employers are capturing this "scenario" in this favour cleverly. Take an example- the paid-employees, as a percentage of total employed is only16.9 percent. Of those in employment, only 46% receive regular/monthly payment. The rest are peace-rated, weekly and daily waged workers. Still every 24 in 100 workers are paid in kind instead of cash. Except permanent workers, others do not get paid leave, provident fund, gratuity and other fringe benefits including education, health and housing. Leaving Nepali labour market largely informal ; NO Formal Employment Contract of any type between bosses & the workers are exercised. Most of the issues of labour contention in my country are, thus juggling around whether or not issuing appointment letter, whether to hire on a permanent or temporary basis, no work, no pay, hire and fire. The average monthly income of workers is NPR 5117 (Female 3402 only) , however, majority of workers are still deprived of the minimum wage-rate (NPR 190 daily) fixed by the government. 3 Bishu Rimal Presentation at International seminar of 3F Denmark Smalandshavet, Sept 15, 2010